What Now For Black America After Trump’s Election?

"You've got a long laundry list of really worrisome issues of people that are around Trump," said Joe Williams, Senior Editor of U.S. News and World Report.

In the aftermath of Donald Trump‘s election as President of the United States, Roland Martin and his panel of guests discussed what comes next for Black America.

Trump ascended to power without the support of Black voters and never whole-heartedly addressed the issues important to African-Americans. The president-elect issued a clarion call to White supremacists by way of his campaign’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” and at one point during the 2016 campaign, Trump irreverently asked Black America, “What the hell do you have to lose?”

After explaining Trump’s election marks the end of the third reconstruction of the United States, Martin asked, “What now happens for African-Americans? What is the agenda? How do African-Americans communicate with someone who frankly didn’t even deal with Black folks during the campaign?“

Joe Williams, Senior Editor of U.S. News and World Report, said, “Nobody really has a solid answer for it.

“Democrats didn’t even plan for a Trump presidency. They were fairly convinced that Hillary Clinton had it not necessarily on lock, but certainly would arrive in Washington with a slim majority,” said Williams.

He continued, “Now you have a Republican that controls all three levels of power and for the foreseeable future could appoint some Supreme Court justices that could make the Voting Rights Act ruling look like child’s play.”

Williams also pointed out that Trump has promised to rebuild the inner cities, “but we don’t have an agenda there and no clear way to press him on those concerns.”

Shermichael Singleton, Republican Political Consultant at Singleton Strategies, LLC said, “I think we definitely have to be at the table … we do have to have some level of representation there and as a young African-American, I get the concerns of people that are my age and police brutality and criminal justice reform.”

Singleton later explained it will be up to the Black Republicans “to speak up as it pertains to the issues relevant to the Black community.”

Trump is consideringRudy Giuliani for Attorney General of the United States. Martin asked Liz Copeland, Founding President of the Urban Conservative Project, Inc., what the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division would look like under Giuliani.

Copeland responded: “It doesn’t look like the members of this panel.”

She continued, “As an African-American and a Republican living in an urban area, it’s concerning for me.”

Williams reminded viewers we should also be concerned with Steve Bannon being named Trump’s Chief of Staff. He pointed out Bannon, who ran Trump’s campaign, is also the head of Alt-Nation.

The NewsOne Now panelist said Bannon could control “who gets in and who gets out, who has access to the president.”

Williams continued, “You’ve got a long laundry list of really worrisome issues of people that are around Trump, people that Trump is surrounding himself with who are going to be inner circle advisers and have a say whether or not young Black Americans who protest and complain about treatment get heard by the president.”